anti-choice determinist

In this episode, I read what is perhaps one of the creepiest stories in the bible. The story where Jesus kills a herd of pigs by sending demons into them. Matthew 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine:and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus:and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. The main thing to understand about this story is that if you believe in "devils" which are capable of "possessing" and controlling the actions of a human or pigs, then you have no way of saying that we have free will and are in control of what we do. Similar, but not identical stories are told in Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39. In those stories, it is just one man possessed of devils. In either case, Jesus allowed the devils to go into the pigs which caused them to run off and drown. Free will is still impossible for an atheist because of determinism, but this story provides an extra example from the bible of something supernatural that if it existed would cause us to do things we don't want to do. So while I don't think this story ever happened, it is something that Christian fundamentalists have to take seriously. If you believe this, then you have to also accept that Jesus had authority over the devils and gave permission for them to enter the pigs. Basically, this implies that Jesus and the devils are pig murderers. No animal rights activist will like this story. Also, for the christian carnivores who think pigs exist only to be killed and eaten, remember that eating swine is forbidden in Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8. If you go back to episode 10, you can hear what I think of God changing the languages of the humans in Genesis 11. How is it that people can claim to believe the stories in the bible and yet still think we are able to freely choose?

In this episode, I talk about death, graveyards, tombstones, and what I want done with my organs after I am dead. I also explain all the causes that led to my beliefs about death and why it is the end of existence.

A facebook friend asked me what I think should be done in the criminal justice system and what I think of the death penalty. Some things will obviously have to change in the way we think about criminals. We can try to separate and reform them. We just can't hate them or believe that they deserve to die.

In this episode I read a page from George Ortega's book: Exploring the Illusion of Free Will. A search for his name on google books will help you find where you can download the PDF file. After that I talked about how I got into the subject of free will and how I originally discovered his work after he commented on one of my videos. George Ortega has spent a lot of time refuting free will. His website is full of information and links to what people are saying about free will and determinism. http://causalconsciousness.com/

Why is abortion such a bad thing? Just as people are ignorant of the many causes that lead them to do what they do, I believe many of them are also ignorant of the effect it has on a society when murder becomes legal. I have talked about the truth of determinism and the falsehood of free will in the first 20 episodes of this show. Now it is time to get back to the subject of abortion specifically because it was the cause for this show. If it had not been for my anti-abortion activism, I might never have gotten into the topic of free will. That being said, I will not abandon the free will topic because it has been proven to have greater relevance than any other debate. The reason for this is that all debates are really under the umbrella of the illusion of "choice". Other topics such as the existence of god, gay marriage, gun control, and yes, even abortion are only solvable once someone understands determinism. Why do you think all the debates continue? The answer is more obvious than you might think. People can't simply choose to all agree on them! They can't even compromise about topics that are essential to their worldview.